Optical emission spectrometers and mass spectrometers using a plasma such as an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) as an atomization source or ionization source are known as versatile high-sensitivity elemental analyzers in a wide variety of fields, including material analysis, environmental analysis, and semimicroanalysis.
Conventional ICP-optical emission spectrometers (ICP-OES), ICP-atomic emission spectrometers (ICP-AES), and ICP-mass spectrometers (ICP-MS) aerosolize a liquid sample using a nebulizer in a vaporizing chamber and supply the aerosolized sample to a plasma source to convert it into a plasma in order to keep plasma stable, and then analyze light emitted from the plasma, or ionized sample.
In recent years, nebulizer systems capable of individually simultaneously nebulizing multiple liquids have been often used as a means for performing on-line the internal standard correction method, standard addition method, hydride generation method, or the like. As such technologies, there have been known technologies described in Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 1997-199076, paragraphs 0012 to 0014, FIG. 1), Patent Literature 2 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 1999-337526, paragraphs 0009 to 0010, 0019 to 0020, FIGS. 1, 2, and 4), and Patent Literature 3 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-70841, paragraphs 0021 to 0022, FIG. 1) and Non-Patent Literature 1 (M. A. Aguirre et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2010, 25, 1724-1732), Non-Patent Literature 2 (N. Kovachev et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2009, 24, 1213-1221), and Non-Patent Literature 3 (C. D. Pereira et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2012, 27, 2132-2137).
The technology described in Patent Literature 1 nebulizes samples from multiple nebulizers (4) supported on a chamber (1) and ionizes the aerosolized mixed samples using a plasma (21). The nebulizers (4) each include a carrier gas supply unit (10).
In the nebulizer system described in Non-Patent Literature 1, two nebulizers are disposed in parallel or disposed in such a manner that the front ends thereof are inclined at 15 or 30 degrees so as to come close to each other.
The nebulizer system described in Patent Literature 2 nebulizes sample liquids supplied through eight pipes (2) using a gas introduced from one gas inlet (3).
The nebulizer system described in Patent Literature 3 nebulizes sample liquids supplied through multiple capillaries (5) using a gas introduced from one gas inlet (6).
The nebulizer system described in Non-Patent Literature 2 nebulizes liquid samples introduced from individual liquid sample inlets (4) and supplied through four capillaries (7) using a gas introduced from one common gas inlet (3).
The nebulizer system described in Non-Patent Literature 3 nebulizes liquid samples introduced from three liquid inlets using a gas introduced from one gas inlet.